Snakes, Sunrises and Shakespeare: How Evolution Shapes Our Loves and Fears

We fear snakes because of the danger of venom or constriction, and we welcome the assurances of the sunrise as the predatory dangers of the dark night disappear. Many of our aesthetic preferences, from the kinds of gardens we build to the foods we enjoy and the entertainment we seek, are the lingering result of natural selection. In this ambitious and unusual work, evolutionary biologist Gordon H. Orians explores the role of evolution in human responses to the environment, beginning with why we have emotions and ending with evolutionary approaches to aesthetics. Orians reveals how our emotional lives today are shaped by decisions our ancestors made centuries ago on African savannas as they selected places to live, sought food and safety, and socialized in small hunter-gatherer groups. During this time our likes and dislikes became wired in our brains, as the appropriate responses to the environment meant the difference between survival or death. His rich analysis explains why we mimic the tropical savannas of our ancestors in our parks and gardens, why we are simultaneously attracted to danger and approach it cautiously, and how paying close attention to nature’s sounds has resulted in us being an unusually musical species. We also learn why we have developed discriminating palates for wine, why we have strong reactions to some odors, and why we enjoy classifying almost everything.

Gordon H. Orians is Professor Emeritus of Biology at the University of Washington in Seattle. After receiving a PhD in Zoology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1960, he moved to Seattle where he has spent his entire professional career. He has served as Director of the university’s Institute for Environmental Studies from 1976 through 1986. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1989 and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1990. His most intensive research area has been behavioral ecology, primarily with problems of habitat selection, mate selection and mating systems, selection of prey and foraging theory, the relationships between ecology and social organization, and population dynamics. More recently his research has focused on human emotional responses to environments. He is the author of “North Pacific Temperate Rainforests: Ecology and Conservation.”